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Topic: Acquan Places (Read 5807 times)

The FirePeak Islands are the tops of mainly dormant or extinct volcanos that stretch thousands of feet down to the sea bed.They are inhabited by tribes of humans who have intermarried and who normally live at peace with each other. In the past there were some fearsome tribal wars but now the tribes tend to live peacefully together, unless someone does something unforgiveable like intertribal rape or murder.

They live on the local fruit of their islands, as well as on herds of pigs.Every year in the hottest month, come the Great Ships from Banhosea, to trade with them.For two weeks beforehand everybody except the very young, the very old, and the sick, gather together piles of fruit and small herds of pigs,and chunks of amythest from their islands.

Then they blow on conch-horns and beat their pigskin drums and tamberines as three great ten-masted ships sail in along with a whole squadron of smaller craft.The traders have arrived, bringing them iron axes, beautiful amber beads, small numbers of cattle, and different kinds of fruit to the ones that they have.

The traders wind down crates of what the islanders desire, and the islanders reply after emptying the crates by filling them with the fruit and pigs and amythest that the traders want in return.Nobody cheats each other as both sides feel that it would not be in their interest to do so.When the traders leave the tribes have a three day festival of drinking and dancing and celebrating,with new food to eat.

In the winter the sea grows stormy and the winds blow hard, so the people mainly stay within their wooden houses and light fires against the cold.

IC-Acqua is not a planet in it's own right, but is one of the moons of the great red gas planet Jove. Jove is slightly bigger then our solar system's Jupiter, and is mostly composed of massive amounts of hydrogen and helium gas, the lighter then air helium being kept within the planet by it's heavy gravity.Massive blue spot storms shoot along the *surface* of red gas, moving at up to a thousand miles an hour, and are studied by a few astromoners and astrologiers,and by leading spellcasters too.

Acqua's orbit is eliptical, so the planet seems from the point of view of an inhabitant to grow and shrink in the sky, from the size of a moon as seen from the ground, to the size of a fist.The further away the planet is, the colder it is, and the more magic can be cast using the same amount of amythest.In the winter it is cold even at the equator of Acqua and freezing near the poles, and in the summer the equator region is tropical and most of the polar ice melts. The gravitational pull of the gas giant coupled with the melting sea ice causes great tides that flood a lot of the land, but everybody is used to it. Some cities are built out of reach of the largest tide, others have sea walls to protect them. There are villages built on stilts or even in large boats.One way or another the different peoples manage to cope with the flood.Although individals may drown,most people survive,and everyone is taught the dangers of the sea from the very start of their lives.

Every few decades there is a partal eclipse when the sun is partly covered by the edge of the gas giant in such a way that the light shines through the gas and is coloured blood red, which is taken to be an ill omen.Strange creatures are more likely to rise from the sea at such a time. Total eclipses happen on average once a century and are greatly feared because of the G-Thrann.Both total and partial eclipses last an entire day because of the size of the gas planet.

Jove has other moons too but only one is close enough to Acqua to be as big as our moon, the rest are only clearly visible with powerful telescopes. The close moon is covered with ice which makes it twice as bright as ours.

The Mists of the Ang'Karathian Sea The Ang'Karathian Sea has been haunted by the alien mists for millennia. This mist appear out of nowhere and completely block all vision save for a few meters, which has caused alot of shipwrecks throughout history. But what the sailors fear even more is the legend of the Mist Wraith. The legends tell of ships entering the mist and when the mist lift, the entire crew can be found on deck or in their cabins, fully drained of all bodily fluids; nothing more than dry husks, a lifeless parody of their former selves.

The Eternal Lighthouse Somewhere in the Sea of Tears, the goddess Ulmania erected a lighthouse; a gift to the seafaring peoples, so that they may safely traverse the dangerous seas. Thus it may be that when a particular ship, captained by a man favoured of Ulmania, is in dire peril, the Eternal Keeper will light the beacon of the lighthouse, providing a light for the captain to follow.

Standing guard over the northern harbor of banhoesea, called Kitae-Minot in the common dialect, are the ruins of the ancient Titan of BangeTar. The ancient statue was built to commemorate the victory of Man over the Shura, driving them into the sea. The statue was a likeness of the Tamitur Shogunate ,with great amethyst eyes. Fires in the top of the statue appeared to give the Shogun glowing eyes and a crown of fire. For generations the statue lit the way for travelers entering the rocky shoals of Kitae-Minot. The statue was cast down in the year of the lily when pirates sacked the port. Today all that remains are the eroded stone legs of the ancient ruler. Even the iron pins holding together the massive stone blocks have been stolen for other projects. Thus the mighty Tamitur once called the "Shark King" is cast into the sea, forgotten to all but his enemies.

The Isle of Arsonists The Isle of Arsonists, fifty miles from Banhoesea, is where all of the arsonists are sent. It is blackened and scorched from the many fires that are set by the gibbering insane, and full of the blackened stumps of trees. Often smoke is seen rising from it, and most captians order their crews to stay far from it. Yet it has plant life of a kind...rich green grass grows in the winter, along with certain grape vines that only grow in a scorched area.So in the winter when rains make burning almost impossible the arsonists enjoy sweet purple grapes.

In the summer finding food is a major problem.Some manage to eat lobsters that they catch in lobster pots, some eat rasins, some kill and eat each other and some end up starving to death. Very rarely, some ship's captain might take pity on them and give them some food.

There is a serious risk of being caught up,when the grass dries, in the fires set by the lunatics, and burnt alive before being eaten.That is the most dangerous time of the year.The arsonists are put ashore with only one set of clothing,so even if it avoids being burnt, after a few weeks it smells and looks disgusting.Many have wounds or pink scars from small, non-fatal burns.The sane hate the lunatics with a passion but are grossly outnumbered.

At the highest part of the island,where flames cannot reach, is a small clay ziggurat sacred to Jove, which is on the top of a dormant volcano, so there is allways a fire burning within it.Both the sane and the mad respect this holy place and will not do anything to damage it.

The arsonists must sleep in the open air,without bedding, in all weathers, since the lunatics burnt down the huts that had been built for them and the fires spread to the huts of the sane.

The Mussel Shore Far to the north of Acqua is the Mussel Shore, a place full of geysers and warm pools on the ege of the great northern icecap.The pools and some of the geysers,where the water is not too hot, are full of bactrial and algal life, and the shellfish which are at the bottom of the food chain feed on it. There are large crabs the size of a dinner plate and birds with oversized beaks that are designed for eating shellfish, that eat the mussels and oysters and limpits, and there are a few tribes of humans who eat everything else,and who catch fish and seals from the seas and wear sealskin clothes.

In summer things are pleasent except for the occasional storm that penatrates into the fjords which are normally much calmer then the highly dangerous seas of the rest of Acqua, except for the clouds of Scratchmee flies that congregate at dusk and dawn. Scratchmee bites itch horribly and once someone scratches it is hard not to scar.People wear sealskin suits over their whole body if they are out at such a time when the Scrachmees are active.

The Crime Isles By no means all the countries on Acqua have the death penalty.There are countries where they have virtually, for one reason or another, abolished it. But that does not mean that the people there like criminals. Therefore they have sent their life sentence prisoners to a small group of far away islands. The seas of such islands are dangerous even by Acquan standards, with strong currants, deadly sea creatures, and patrolling naval vessels to destroy the boats of escapees.

Arsonist's Isle is a horrible place, burnt black by all the fires that are set by the imnates, who have to live on fish and lobsters that they catch in pots and drink soot stained water.

Murderer's Isle is a highly dangerous place to be, where murders are common, and most surviivors who are not quickly killed have joined one of a number of large gangs who often fight each other to the death.

Rapist's Isle is where rapists are sent, with noone to rape but each other.

Insane Isle is for the incurably insane and dangerous, who are unfit for soceity. It is beleaved by some that a few political prisoners have been secretly sent there by their goverments.

Murderer's Isle, fifty miles from Banhoesea, is where, once a year, a cargo of murderers is sent to kill each other off.They have clockwork collars placed around their necks that if not unlocked within three days, will send a short sharp spike into their throats, slashing them open. They are given bags containing food and water for one day and a random weapon, which can be as deadly as a wizard's staff or as harmless as a jester's staff.The island itself is covered in a dense forest.

The collars are enchanted to come off when there is only a single survivor. The survivor is then collected.Some become galley slaves, others become torturers for the Shogun.It is said that the island is full of the bones of previous murderers.

After the Alliance of Shador conqured the FirePeak islands, those of the inhabitants who were not killed in the first attack have been enslaved and forced to toil all day in the amythest mines, watched over by their brutal Shura masters. For attempting to escape, or occasionly at random, a few of them each week are fed to one of the many Krakens who have joined the alliance, who also have been promised a fifth of the amythest supply of the islands.Even a fifth of the amythest divided amongst forty Krakens is still a lot per Kraken, enough to keep them content and on side.The remaining amythest mainly goes to the Shamens who are best able to use it to summon and bind to their will undead legions of Sea Spiders and Sirens.

The wood from the wrecked ships has been used to build jetties and bridges and to enlarge the islands very slightly. The Shura take turns on dry land, one week on and one week off, so as not to vastly overcrowd what they hold.Their morale has never been higher.